American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor Lewis Niles Black was born on August 30, 1948. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena. When not on the road performing, he resides in Manhattan. He also maintains a residence in Chapel Hill, N.C. He is currently the spokesman for Aruba Tourism, appearing in television ads that aired in late 2009 and 2010.

Personal Life

Lewis Black is the son of Jeannette and Sam Black. His mother was a teacher and his father an artist and mechanical engineer. Born and raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Silver Spring, Maryland, he graduated from Springbrook High School in 1966, summa cum laude. As he claims in his book, he scored highly on the math section of his SAT exam and later applied to Princeton University among others. Black enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied playwriting and was a brother of Pi Lambda Phi International fraternity and a member of Student Congress. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama in 1977.

Career

Lewis Black's career began in theater as a playwright in residence and associate artistic director of Steve Olsen's West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, from 1981 to 1989. Also with Rusty Magee, Black wrote the musical The Czar of Rock and Roll, which premiered at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990.

In 1998, Black starred in his first comedy special on the series Comedy Central Presents.

In 2000, Black and fellow comedian Jim Norton were arrested for their involvement with "The Naked Teen Voyeur Bus", a specially designed bus with acrylic glass walls containing numerous 18 and 19 year old girls. This bus rode around Manhattan in the same day and route that President Clinton was taking. After twenty-eight hours they where released.In 2000 also starred in two additional episodes of the series Comedy Central Presents and again in 2002. He starred in another special for the network in 2002, titled Taxed Beyond Belief.

Since 2003, Black has hosted the World Stupidity Awards ceremony at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival for the three years the awards have been presented.
In 2004, he had an HBO stand-up special titled Black on Broadway and appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Lewis Black released his autobiography, Nothing's Sacred, in 2005 and since November 9, 2005, Black has been making appearances in small segments on The Weather Channel. In December 2005, he appeared in an animated holiday special The Happy Elf, as the voice of the extremely tightly wound elf, Norbert.

Black was the voice of "Manobrain" during the third season of the Cartoon Network series "Duck Dodgers" and played the character of the Deadly Duplicator in Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. He played the part once more in the Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law video game.

On April 21, 2006, Black performed at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC for an HBO special, Red, White, and Screwed. It aired on June 10, 2006, and a DVD was released October 3, 2006.In 2006 he also appeared in the film Accepted, as Dean Ben, Man of the Year and Unaccompanied Minors. Black hosted Comedy Central's Last Laugh '06, which aired on December 10, 2006.

On February 11, 2007, Black received a Grammy award for "Best Comedy Album" for his album The Carnegie Hall Performance. On June 29, 2007, Black gave a benefit show at Springbrook High School, in the school's auditorium for 1,100 alumni, faculty, and students. Black did the voice-over for an oxpecker named Ted in Cartoon Network series My Gym Partner's a Monkey. Black hosted Comedy Central's Last Laugh '07, which aired on December 2, 2007 along with Dave Attell and D.L. Hughley. In mid December 2007, Black went with Robin Williams, Kid Rock, Lance Armstrong and Rachel Smith, Miss USA 2007, on a USO trip to support the troops in Iraq and Kuwait.

In January 2008, as part of Comedy Central's "Stand-Up Month", Black's routine finished in the fifth place on "Stand-Up Showdown 2008", a viewer-based countdown of the top "Comedy Central Presents" routines. On February 18, 2008, Black hosted History of the Joke with Lewis Black, a 2-hour comedy-documentary on The History Channel. Black also hosted the Comedy Central television series The Root Of All Evil in 2008.

On August 2, 2009, Black filmed two shows at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit, MI. These shows were the basis for a concert film called Stark Raving Black, which appeared in theatres for a limited time in October. It was also released as on DVD June 15, 2010. At the end of 2009, Black returned to the History Channel to host Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black.

Beginning in January 2010, Black embarked on a new tour called "In God We Rust".